March 04, 2018

Democratics Push On

Most of them moved here from back east - think of all the carbon they expelled. But they're here now, and since the Willamette Valley holds most of the population in Oregon, they've got a strangle-hold on the rest of us.

One controversial line item is $1.4 million from the general fund to pay for a new Carbon Policy Office headed by the governor’s current carbon policy adviser, Kristen Sheeran. It’s supposed to help a joint legislative committee develop a plan to cap greenhouse gas pollution that can pass during next year’s longer legislative session.

Sheeran started the job in October at an annual salary of $112,000. Plus PERS, and Cadillac Health insurance. Just what we need.

On the other hand, they were pushing a bill targeting one particular individual in the state, and they decided to drop that one:

Democrats in the Oregon legislature have shelved a hotly contested bill that would have removed an outspoken critic of the teachers’ union from the State Board of Education.

Kim Sordyl, a lawyer and mother of two children attending Portland public schools, was chosen last year by Secretary of State Dennis Richardson to represent him on the board, but the bill would have forced her to vacate the seat by requiring him to name a full-time state employee.

House Democratics passed the bill last week on a party-line vote, but the Senate killed it.

The legislation was proposed by Democratic state Rep. Margaret Doherty, a 22-year consultant for the Oregon Education Association, which Ms. Sordyl has fought for years over rules designed to protect teachers that also make it more difficult to remove abusers.